Hot topics in education circles re-surface again and again. We’re hearing misinformation in the national media about charter schools and the types of students in these schools with an allusion that charters can somehow kick out students at will. We wanted to take this opportunity to revisit the facts on suspensions and expulsions, which we covered in a blog post a few years ago.

First, charter schools are public schools that cannot select their students, and by law, must enroll students based on a lottery system, if their applicant pool exceeds available seats. Unsurprising to us, data still show that charters are committed to educating all students and keeping students IN school.

Charter schools and Milwaukee Public Schools both have concerted efforts to decrease suspensions by working with teachers, students and families at a highly personalized level. Sometimes the issues leading up to a suspension reveal a deeper issue below the surface, and it is only through conscientious intervention that school administrators can mitigate possible suspensions. ​While charter schools historically have lower rates of suspension and expulsion than district schools, both charter schools and district schools, overall, have made strides and decreased their suspension rates in recent years. In the 2011-12 school year, the district had a 22% suspension rate compared to charter schools, which had a 13% suspension rate. Since then, the district has reduced suspensions to 13%, and charter schools have reduced the rate to 10%.

​Expulsions are rare. In the same 2012 – 2014 timeframe, charters and district schools have very low expulsion rates with less than half-a-percent of students being expelled each year. The lowest rate in recent years was closer to a quarter of one percent (.28%) in charter schools, and the highest in that timeframe was .46% in district schools. The scale of the expulsion chart below provides tenth-of-a-percent and hundredth-of-a-percent differences to put this in perspective.

Keeping students IN school, instead of taking them out of school, is a path to better achievement, which we know from available research. Every minute that a student misses class time, misses assignments or misses advisement simply creates a deeper chasm for the student to get back on track for success.

We applaud both the charter community and district schools for their continuing efforts to reduce punitive time out of school and increase student success.